all. japan struggles to avert nuclear but his attempts to cool reactors at the fukushima plant bring no immediate success it's feared the scale of the disaster is being played down. the i.a.e.a. has absolutely no ability to deal with this problem any more than the japanese government has the ability to deal with this problem the head of the u.n. nuclear watchdog finally heads to japan criticism of the atomic agency has failed to get on top of the crisis. unfolding for the sheema disaster could severely damage the image and bank accounts of the u.s.

who designed the station india's already rethinking its business dealings with general electric plus in other news this hour. as more market continues to regain control of the libya from the opposition forces for the cease fire resolution in the u.n. security council. on. live from our studios here in central moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day eight pm in the russian capital just past eight pm an hour just past two am in japan where the country is struggling to regain control of the overheated reactors at the tsunami damage fukushima nuclear plant after a series of blasts and forty engineers involved in managing the crisis have reportedly sustained injuries including radiation exposure military helicopters of

sea water onto the stricken reactors trying to avert a nuclear meltdown and also use five fire engines loaded with thirty tons of water three out of six reactors are reported to be in critical condition radiation levels have risen in the thirty kilometer zone surrounding the station experts say the area is being exposed to a twelve month dose of radiation every six. hours u.s. officials have criticized the japanese government suggesting that on the plane the seriousness of the situation a lot is over but it has been through the quake hit regions do it first have people flee the area terrified at the threat of meltdown. the sheer force of the tsunami was hard to comprehend until i saw this vehicles and houses it impossible angles it was as if the ground surface had been ripped off. this woman told us they've never experienced such a powerful earthquake before and she feared for her life we weren't allowed out of the car at the coast the police were on high alert and suddenly there was panic.

warnings of a five metre high wall of water heading our way we sped inland as fast as possible chased by others the last wave took just nine minutes after the earthquake to reach eight kilometers inland we didn't have long this was a false alarm but those already on their knees are bracing themselves for more and the relief center in sendai the newly homeless a given blankets and a cardboard sheet all nineteen floors of this building a full with everyone from infants to the elderly. the night i spent here was be to leak old and virtually sleepless some could be here for weeks first an earthquake in the tsunami and now radiation roadblocks around fukushima appeared as early as saturday since then he has been steadily building just like the cubes it took an hour to get past this jam of cars for one thing to fill up here in fuel shortages

it may not be visible histeria but the anxieties prompted essential stockpiling as the threat escalates more and more leaving i was traveling with his crew from new zealand when we heard there had been a full explosion at the plant quickly changed to an exit strategy at niigata i met this young family from sendai a baby boy was just five days old when the earthquake struck. the only thing i thought of when it happened was i have to say that might be the how these feel about the radiation i see it. that's why i have left sendai i'm scared for my baby and i don't want him to get ill it can have a very negative impact on him on a train to tokyo it was more of the same this tourist has changed his flight out to the earliest of able to get this.

when it comes to radiation and people i've met here aren't sure the government's telling the full story and most aren't willing to wait around to find out why the bennetts r.t. tokyo. where the death toll from japan's catastrophic quake and tsunami has reached almost five thousand several hundred over nine thousand others remain unaccounted for and our correspondents are at the center of events and reporting on what's happening around them there you will get their first hand experiences on twitter page and you'll find out about doc and deserted shopping areas right in the heart of tokyo and i have a bell at our reporter and he has his. there and today's other news on japan's crisis all available for you. on the school called. well energy advisor going to send a told me yesterday while the japanese government may be seeking to downplay the scale of the nuclear crisis that doesn't change the fact that the situation is critical and he thinks the consequences could be disastrous. so this is sure not

all on steroids this is this will be worse than surely the radiation exposure so high and so i but i don't think human beings can get into the areas that need to be accessed in order to put the fire to put fires out and also to get water into the locations where the heat is the highest if there's any lucky thing that's happened so far as the wind has mainly been blown out to sea if the wind turns to the to the south i expect he will see radiation in tokyo i don't believe it will be enough to evacuate tokyo but i think it would be prudent to take proportions and you know try to stay out and stay out of the plume you know the asiatic region they're already beginning to reroute airlines because they're afraid of the the radiation landing on the airplane and you know about a plane from from tokyo to moscow for instance will fly through that plume so it's

it will definitely begin to affect asiatic travel i don't think the government is lying i do think the government is not telling them everything you know you know i studied sure noble and i was an expert witness on three mile island and the government is always behind the eight ball on nice things they are deliberately trying to downplay the amount of radiation being released you know we saw it in the gulf of mexico two at the oil spill and they underestimated the amount of oil that seems to be the way bureaucracies were. well the head of the international atomic energy agency says he's heading to japan on thursday almost a week after the nuclear crisis began and critics say the watchdog is lagging behind and failing to keep on top of events. has more now from tokyo. i missed reports that radiation levels in the japanese capital could be up to eleven times the norm people scramble to get away from the visible killer here in tokyo series do seem to be less visible at the epicenter of japan's nuclear

disaster fifty people remain struggling to keep the reactors under control but wait where is the international atomic energy agency the exponents of the peaceful use of nuclear power there here in japan arriving four days after the first explosion at the nuclear plant the i.a.e.a. is a promoter of nuclear power. is not any more efficient at solving this problem . solving hurricane katrina's problems in the u.s. when the twin approved when the proof is in the pudding you can clearly see that the i.a.e.a. has absolutely no ability to deal with this problem any more than the japanese government the very people who should be keeping tabs on the situation seemed to have their little direct involvement in it and that until now and the only source of information was the japanese government for years the organization has been busy with their mission statement to maintain nuclear energy for peaceful means in two

thousand and five and will increase inspections of rain in some of these the organization and its then chairman mohamed el baradei i was awarded a nobel peace prize but by the looks of it concerns over a possible un sanctioned uses of nuclear energy by countries like iran seem to have overshadowed the clear and present dangers of already existing nuclear power plants in countries like japan and now it's the remaining workers who have to battle fire smoke and radiation what remains of the fukushima power plant there's only fifty people allowed on the plants of the mobs and they work in fifteen minutes shifts which is which is very little and they have to work very many things by hand because remote control installations of on down. on the main operator room is not usable because of the radiation levels they're working to look extremely difficult circumstances to try to prevent the worst from the worst of all six reactors

showing signs of instability only fifty people remain to peace with a problem putting their lives at risk while the high in my view seem to prefer to watch one from a safe distance in. tokyo and russia is closely watching the situation in its far east in case any radioactivity reaches the coast there from japan and our correspondent in the city of light of our stock and sharing her thoughts on twitter page. has got her hands on a geiger counter there which of course and hide it more in the region at the moment and it's monitoring radiation levels there for us so don't miss the latest updates at odyssey underscore dot com. a lot of it. remains on alert for radioactivity russian rescuers in japan have begun to search a one hundred square kilometer area around the devastated city of sendai he's been

discussing the challenges facing japan's government. he's russia's minister of emergency situations that i didn't interview that's coming up later this hour but here's a brief preview for you. a week ago nobody could have predicted the situation we see now who would have thought that six reactors would be in critical condition so we need to monitor and assess all this there is a saying that we learn from our mistakes i should say that many experts from japan came to our country to study the chernobyl disaster they studied the after effects on the environment on children and adults on the thyroid gland on vegetation be invested a huge amount of money in these studies and have done a large amount of work together with russian researchers thus they did their best to use that situation to their advantage i believe that as bad as he sounds now we and our experts must do our best to use the situation to our advantage in order to render help mankind including russia would learn well the lessons the situation is

teaching us. well for more on this let's talk to nuclear expert professor ronald jr he's from the massachusetts institute of technology joining me live in texas thanks very much indeed for joining us here on our team a little earlier we heard from an expert who likened the scenario in japan to chernobyl nuclear disaster back in the soviet union in the 1980's would you agree with that assessment well i don't know what kind of expert he purports to be but there is absolutely there's absolutely no comparison zero any competent nuclear scientist or person. with nuclear power would know that they're simply not true but the danger is not the same though after all we're hearing about the u.k. u.s. and france evacuating nationals who tokyo people are very worried about the radiation levels so are you saying this really isn't that serious well it's

certainly not your normal so in what way then could this be a danger to the we have facilities of course and the surrounding areas what could happen if we do see a meltdown. well first of. several a number well let's put it this way. a significant fraction of some of the fuel in the reactors one through three have been damaged and melted that's not the same as saying there's a meltdown the pressure vessels in all three cases are intact and that's the and that's the main barrier. or one of the secondary containment and unit number two i believe has been perforated by one of the one of the explosions by the way these are not nuclear explosions these are all hydrogen explosions i heard it comes from corrosion of the. fuel cladding that's been that's gotten very hot

so there's just no there's just no comparison i'm sitting here looking at the latest radiation surveys which anybody can go online and get and those rates these are at the twenty kilometer limit i don't have anything inside that but they are very very very low so when somebody says they're eight times normal normal is effectively zero and so normal so twenty times normal. numbers like. point one per hour at the twenty kilometer line and to put that in perspective you would get point three or point five million just flying from los angeles to boston but that is now you're talking about the situation at the moment what if they don't manage to cool down those fuel rods and we do see further explosions a meltdown which is everyone is concerned about what are the risks then if that

does happen ok if you get cool clearly that's hypothetical because i actually have pictures in front of me that are from from tepco which show which show reactor number three. and water in the pool in number four so the likelihood of anything like that happening is that is in my mind zero but if you want to be hypothetical then if there is no water to cool any of the fuel then the spent fuel pool would be that would be a very bad situation where the japanese government secures have under playing the situation is that a case where we're seeing the at the message perhaps being correct on that point if you're always seeing overplaying of the situation by the media who we believe. well i certainly don't believe the media and what about the at the moment it seems almost that there's desperation there where we have helicopters dropping seawater into the plant can we be sure that that water well actually reach the overheating

fuel rods well or is this really a sign of desperation now. well the reason the helicopters is being used is because they can't get fire pumps and electricity and the like into the site and my last communication with the folks there and it came to that they now have fire fire engines and fire pumps in there that big water cannons they can shoot shoot water and distance the helicopters each one carried seven point five metric tons of water to drop into the pool spent fuel pool i think i knew that number three so indeed the radiation doses are high there and you need to be very prudent and that's what they're being and that's the reason why they're using the helicopter here member of the air quake and the tsunami kind of messed up everything there and so far if i recall they're actually having the bulldozer rode into the into the

site to clear the debris away well we'll have to leave it there thanks very much indeed for your insight into the situation there in japan nuclear expert professor running. from the massachusetts institute of technology joining us live there from texas thanks it's on the naughty. well the crisis at the focus of the plans and lots of criticism over the makeup of the nuclear reactors designed by american general electric back in the nine hundred seventy s. the company's unlikely to be held liable however a major customers like india and not rushing to sign new contracts. has more now from new delhi on the indian reaction to japan's disaster. reaction here in india has been mixed especially considering that the chairman of g.e. jeffrey immelt was actually in india this week promoting his company's interest in investing millions of dollars into india's nuclear program which is similar to be worth around one hundred fifty billion dollars he announced that he plans to spend five million dollars here within the next five years but obviously many indians are

worried about what they're seeing over in japan she did design those nuclear reactors that have caused so much damage and destruction in fukushima and according to japanese law she will not be held liable for any of that which could save them potentially tens to hundreds of billions of dollars now this comes on top of a huge scandal that's rocking india today wiki leaks the whistle blowing web site actually released thousands of cables showing that americans knew about bribes to indian politicians to make them sign that the u.s. indo nuclear deal back in two thousand and eight so that's clearly not helping american image here in the subcontinent right now india is planning on increasing its nuclear atomic generation thirteen times by twenty thirty so there are several american companies not just g.'s that are very keen on trying to get a stake in that but as of right now india doesn't want to have another potential disaster like what they're seeing over in japan happening here especially given the

fact that she isn't really being held responsible or accountable for what's happening over there so only time will tell but as you've seen since the days following the disaster g.e. stocks have been tumbling so we're going to have to wait and see what effect that has on its future plans to build nuclear reactors around the world and here in india as well. keeping you up to date with events in japan is all to use for you spoke and you can join the debate on the situation. page also has the latest videos news and analysis on this and to. story starts on facebook. well to other news now this hour in libya forces loyal to colonel gadhafi have made significant gains in their offensive against the rebels and sharing the last opposition held city in the west or so air strikes have targeted an airport just ten kilometers from the eastern rebel stronghold of benghazi. rebels continues and

u.n. security council remains divided over rising solution. russia says imposing a no fly zone could lead to military intervention and is pushing for a cease fire. is following developments for us. along with the international community a russia has strongly criticized moammar gadhafi actions in libya in fact just a few days ago president dmitry medvedev has called god no longer out there meaning that he is unwelcome here in the country and neither is his fellow you need to mediate it's also burns got that you from conducting any financial operations in the country when it comes to the north why resolution truly discussed by the u.n. security council russia is i guess and stands for the complete stop you call for compliance and uploading to russia's foreign minister silvio who spoke to the recent meeting of the g eight foreign ministers in the clearest she says when it

comes to this no fly resolution there are several stumbling points the first one is that even though it was supported by the arab league we haven't made it a concrete detailed proposal on health this no fly resolution should be no fly zone resolution should be conducted it's not clear whether it will need the use of force or strongly strew stand against any foreign military intervention in libya moammar gadhafi continues to regain control of the libyan t.v. series from the opposition so it's not clear if this resolution will be relevant anymore. well you could have his forces are closing in on the opposition the libyan leader himself believes the situation on the ground is different to what people are seeing in the media with shag before we are out we are dealing with something important to us from abroad i mean al qaeda terrorists leadership began to tell the

world about protests in libya about shooting of thousands killed and he sent their reports to the news agencies and all of a sudden we found out and the whole world was against libya would we have had no protests how could news agencies reports not staying the number of victims is one hundred fifty to two hundred how could one speak about thousands how can the u.n. security council and the whole world decide based on media reports and it's now difficult to change world opinion and perception of what's going on. i'll get back with the headlines for you in just over ten minutes from now but in the meantime we've got the latest from the world of business with the military stay with us here in moscow. thank you very much bill japan's economic up the stock has led to concerns over the possible drop and demand for energy for the world's third largest economy nuclear

energy has also come under question where to pan's plant on the verge of collapse meanwhile the gas futures have risen on as they were the lights we move above one hundred dollars per barrel once again christine says camaro oil and gas equity and those that sell and or as another says the gas producers are set to enjoy a spell of rising gas prices. oil is being driven by effects in the middle east not so much by the japanese situation natural gas prices on the other hand being impacted by the japanese problems and it's going to be tough it for the natural gas markets because prices have been depressed there we have a lot of oversupply of both l.n.g. and natural gas so hopefully these will firm things up a little bit more instead of having natural gas markets to price for the next you know three four years now it might only be for about a year announce which is good for natural gas producers like gas from. the japanese

yen did hit its highest level against the us dollar since the end of world war two had climbed as high as seventy six and a quarter in the u.s. trading on wednesday but since fallen back currently trading around seventy nine dollars seventy nine per dollar mark market watchers blame the stronger yen on the repatriation of assets and foreign currency by japanese insurance firms he while g seven finance ministers are planning an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with global markets will simply house expect ministers to give japan the go ahead to intervene in currency markets and steady again earlier this week japan's central bank did inject two hundred eighty four billion dollars in order to stabilize the country's financial markets which have been hit by a massive selloff stake a look at them now in more detail the nikkei raised some of its supposed great gains that saw on wednesday close down one point four percent on thursday hong kong's hang seng closed almost two percent now tepco says it seemingly succeeded in

delivering water to cool down reactor number three at the for shino plant and this is fueling hopes. could be averted after all u.s. markets are rocked boosted by a drop in jobless claims for the first week in the last four which will deprive investor confidence dow jones up one point three nasdaq one point four percent european stocks are showing a similar picture of the regaining some of the losses incurred previous sessions and this is a huge driver for the market is the notion that g seven will cooperate to help the markets the emergency meeting of global central bankers and finance ministers is shared you all tomorrow but we've already seen the markets close up one point seven five percent that's two point two percent a pretty optimistic move now to russia the r.t.s. m i six hundred first session on a positive note investors are still keeping a close watch on updates on japan's post quake radiation prices higher oil prices are providing support to the market therefore my stocks up almost two. senate

banking shares were one of the main winners up four percent at the close but also with the rising oil prices rosneft and lukoil managed to gain a one point nine and almost three percent respectively here's my door just from h.s.b.c. in london. i think this is a lot of uncertainty in the market and that's what's really affecting markets it's of course the terrible events that have happened in japan and there's also a lot of concern about what's happening on inflation front because in the background you are still having a surge in commodity prices led by oil prices and the real concern is that recovery is just too for this point of time to be able to withstand all these pressures coming through and that's what's really driving markets and sound at this point of time. in other news one of russia's biggest industrial agricultural holding some growth as it's planning to hold an initial public offering on the london stock exchange it's a book run a race and capital has value the company of one point eight billion dollars that's

higher than last year's road show which valued the company had a range of one point two to one point five billion the agriculture firm aims to get at least three hundred million dollars in order to finance potential acquisitions. i would say the russian banking system has been benefiting from increased economies of scale and a reduction in the number of very small fundamentally weak banks but prime minister those in the person says that national banks should still take a more active role in modernization. we need to make the growth of quality in the banking sector our priority to increase its sustainability and expand its resource base russia needs the banking sector to be highly competitive with high capitalization of the industry should be based on a state of the art bank infrastructure with the introduction of new technologies and the implementation of modern corporate management methods. that's it for now i will be back in fifty minutes with an update bill is next for headlights do stay

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